Figure 1.--These German brothers in the 1920s were close in age if not twins. They wear identical sailor outfits. The only difference was that one boy wears three-quater sovks and the other boy long stockings. We arevnt sure why mother would have dressed them differently.

HBC has begun to address the question of factors which have affected the wearing of long stockings, including age, cultural attitudes, demographics, formality, gender, seasonality, and social class. One factor that we are less sure about is variations within the family. We find that most mothers tended to dress the children (especially children close in age) with the same type of hosiery, esopecially when long stockings were involved. Most family portrits showed that if long stockings were worn, all the children tended to wear them, although their might be age and gender differences. All the other factors (cultural attitudes, demographics, formality, seasonality, and social class) tended to work to ensure that long stockings if worn were worn by all the children. We note that there were, however some exceptions to this rule abd we don't entirely understand why that was. We see some children of similar age and gender dressed identically except for their hosiery. We think here that mother was the primary person involved because of the age of the children. There are a variety of reasons why these differences may exist. The children themselves may have had preferences. This possibility becomes more likely with the older children. Some mothers may have comsiderc hosiery a relarively minor matter. There may have been a matter as to what items were available and clean on a specific day. Some children in snapshots may have rolled down their stockings, but this was less likely for formal portraits. We susopect that other fsctors may have been involved that do not yet occur to us.